The Boss Isn't Afraid

When Joel, in the Chongyun Mountain, except for his head which was still vaguely recognizable, was no longer human and resembled a monster mixed with various plants, wild beasts and humans, he slowly disintegrated and turned into ashes.

In his room in Chongyun Village, Xiang Kun had already entered a "Hyper-Sensory State." Using the Black Circle Graffiti "Emotion-Infused Object" that he had buried deep in various parts of Chongyun Mountain, he descended and, guided by Alice, locked onto the cognitive information representing Joel.

His ability to understand and analyze cognitive information is now much stronger than before, especially in the world of extrasensory information, where he has Alice as a helper who can directly carry out this process. In some simpler scenarios, he can basically convert cognitive information into images, sounds, and other traditional sensory information in his consciousness for understanding.

Moreover, this way of cognition is even more "intuitive" than the world as understood through the traditional five senses.

Just like he can perceive the cognitive information of an ordinary person, he can directly analyze this information to know the simulated reconstruction images of the target's internal organs, blood, bones, soft tissues, and many other internal parts of the body. This is much more intuitive than the information he obtains through infrared thermal imaging visual mode, super sense of smell, and hearing.

If Xiang Kun were to become a doctor, it wouldn't be a problem for him to easily earn the titles "Xiang Bian Que" or "Kun Hua Tuo."

He can even use "Super-Linked Object" to perform some simple treatments. As he analyzes more and more cognitive information, he believes that it is not impossible to directly influence cognitive information through "Super-Linked Object" to cure some intractable diseases in the future.

At this moment, Xiang Kun's attention was highly focused, his brain was working at lightning speed, and he was doing his best to extract cognitive information from Joel.

Xiang Kun had already discovered this when he was sensing Mr. Liang and John's cognitive information. When sensing the cognitive information of "Mutated Creature", it was like an infinite layered cake, no matter how you peel it, you could never reach the very bottom.

Or it could be described as a dataset of unknown size with countless subdirectories. The file may seem small, but upon opening it, you find numerous subdirectories. Entering any subdirectory reveals even more subdirectories, leading to an infinite number of subdirectories within subdirectories, creating a sense of endless and unfathomable information.

Therefore, Xiang Kun did not try to delve into a particular information direction, but instead restrained his perception of Joel's cognitive information, keeping it within the limits that he and Alice could process together.

A month ago, Xiang Kun sensed the changes in John's cognitive information after he devoured the "mutant serpent". Then John devoured another "Mutated Creature", allowing Xiang Kun to sense the changes in the cognitive information of a "Mutated Creature" from death to disintegration. He also learned about John's cognitive information as the devourer during this process.

Those two experiences with extrasensory perception and deep observation yielded many valuable insights for him.

This time, the opportunity to perceive the self-collapse of a "Mutated Creature" when it reaches its stage limit is even more rare.

He believes that this extrasensory perception will definitely help him further improve his understanding of the origins of "Mutated Creature".

To ensure that Joel could break down at his limit without being affected by external factors or prematurely fall into despair and end his own life, Xiang Kun not only did not show himself or approach him from beginning to end, but also did not even arrest him or restrict his personal freedom. Instead, he "lured" him to Chongyun Mountain, trapped him there, and always gave him a glimmer of hope, so that he did not have a clear understanding of the difference in strength between the two sides, and could not even accurately determine who his opponent was or where he was.

Of course, this is also because he knows very well that when he is nearing his limit, Joel would not dare to touch the blood of ordinary people, and would even deliberately avoid seeing bloody scenes, so ordinary people who come into contact with him are relatively safe for the time being.

As for Joel... a so-called "legitimate Bloodline" with a three-digit or even more lives on his hands, who casually decides life and death and whose basic blood source is human blood, Xiang Kun felt that he was really very merciful to end his life in this way.

He even considered that if he had the time later, he would choose to make a trip to Slovakia to wipe out "Red Rose" in one fell swoop, and get rid of the rest as well.

As for John, given Xiang Kun's interpretation of the secret documents that Alice painstakingly "carried" back, he basically has no chance of leaving freely.

Unless he gains the ability to kill Mr. Liang after devouring these two "Mutated Creature".

But judging from Mr. Liang's style of doing things, well, that possibility... hehe.

Time passed slowly, and Joel's body had completely turned into gray powder and dissipated in the mountains, leaving no trace except for his torn clothes, shoes, and cell phone.

Xiang Kun did not immediately exit the "Hyper-Sensory State." Based on his previous perception and observation of the "Mutated Creature's " disintegration, he had gained more experience and knew what direction he should perceive and search. He had now successfully "captured" some key cognitive information.

The cognitive information originally belonged to Joel, but it didn't completely change its attributes; instead, it merged with the surrounding environment and quickly disappeared.

With Alice's assistance, Xiang Kun could track and perceive this cognitive information through a large number of "Super-Linked Object" deployed in Chongyun Mountain, and determine that they did not move with the extremely fine gray powder that Joel had transformed into, but rather through a non-physical transformation.

Ten minutes later, Xiang Kun opened his eyes, picked up a large burlap sack, left the house, and stepped into Chongyun Mountain under the rising sun—he was going to pack up Joel's things.

On the way up the mountain, Xiang Kun pondered the information he had gained from this perception and observation.

A month ago, with Alice's timely notification, he not only sensed and observed the death and disintegration of a "Mutated Creature" and the process of a "Mutated Creature" devouring another mutation, but Alice also helped him transfer the remaining secret documents from the storage device under the Guarding Prosperity Building.

Among the remaining secret documents, one appears to be Mr. Liang's summary and reflections on the root cause of the mutation. At the very beginning of the document, it is marked. "If you are not a 'Blood-feeding Creature,' reading this document carries an extremely high risk. Please ensure you are prepared and that only one person reads it."

In that document, Mr. Liang referred to the substance that triggers and brings about continuous mutations, making the "Blood-feeding Creature" different from ordinary organisms, as "High-Dimensional Factor."

This wasn't the first time Xiang Kun had seen this term; he had learned about High-Dimensional Factor models when studying machine learning and statistics.

However, it is clear that the "High-Dimensional Factor" mentioned by Mr. Liang in the document is not the "High-Dimensional Factor" in mathematics, but a term that has been given a different meaning.

Mr. Liang believes that there is a special particle that has not yet been discovered by humans, or a form of matter that humans cannot yet understand, that can enter higher-dimensional space, or even already exists in higher-dimensional space. He calls this a "High-Dimensional Factor".

"High-Dimensional Factor" can ignore distance in three-dimensional space and move from one point to another in a different way. Or, for them, changes in distance in three-dimensional space are more like changes in "state".

Under certain conditions, "High-Dimensional Factor" may have a low probability of influencing the basic particles within an organism, thereby causing the entire biological unit to exhibit mutated behaviors.

It cannot be ruled out that "High-Dimensional Factor" can also affect non-living organisms, but so far, no specific examples have been found.

Mr. Liang not only had documents, but also several videos and experimental records to verify some hypotheses using himself as the experimental subject.

Of course, the beginning of these videos also features Mr. Liang is already "no longer human," using a voice like rubbing metal to warn, "Extremely dangerous. If you are not Blood-feeding Creature, be prepared to sacrifice yourself before reading."

Based on his observations and research on a large number of "Blood-feeding Creature" and his own personal experience, Mr. Liang summarized the characteristics of "High-Dimensional Factor" in the three-dimensional space that humans can understand.

He believes that after "High-Dimensional Factor" exert a significant influence on organisms, they will continuously force the biological units they are in to mutate through changes in microstructure. These mutations will cause them to continuously plunder the survival capabilities of other life units, using this as "fuel" to influence the biological units themselves.

Mr. Liang has demonstrated through previous observational experiments that the energy for the movement and growth of "Blood-feeding Creature" does not come from the blood they consume. They have a unique energy circulation system that operates differently depending on the different mutations of the "Blood-feeding Creature".

The thirst for blood is actually a need for "High-Dimensional Factor" within the bodies of "Blood-feeding Creature".

Essentially, the substances they require are not entirely in the blood. However, blood-drinking itself is a "ritual" of plundering the survival ability of a life unit. When this act is accomplished, the "High-Dimensional Factor" can obtain what they need from the plundered life unit.

Among the "High-Dimensional Factor," the law of the jungle prevails, with the winner taking all. When one "Blood-feeding Creature -Blood-feeding Creature" kills another and reaches the blood-drinking stage, it doesn't actually need to drink all the blood. As long as its own "High-Dimensional Factor" judges the plunder as successful, it can absorb the other's "High-Dimensional Factor." Moreover, the other's "High-Dimensional Factor" will record the information of the other's entire mutation process and use it to help the absorbing party's mutation and modification.

Blood-drinking is like snatching a piece of paper containing someone's bank account information and password. You snatch a little bit, and you can see a little bit of information. You can see the account number and password if you snatch enough. You don't need to snatch it all. But after knowing the account number and password, you still need to kill the other person to get the money in their account. Otherwise, having the account number and password is useless.

Therefore, the blood itself is not important; what matters is the process of drinking blood and the state of the organism being drunk from.

Therefore, for some plant-based "Blood-feeding Creature" that don't actually have "blood," their tissue fluid can also become a target for consumption.

"High-Dimensional Factor" are not entirely the same or equal to each other; they also have differences in level and strength. When they absorb the "High-Dimensional Factor" of other "Mutated Creature," they undergo an overall qualitative change, upgrade their level, and thus bring a stronger mutation effect to the original life unit.

However, the "fuel" needed for the "High-Dimensional Factor" to continue mutating must also be upgraded accordingly, requiring the absorption of relatively higher-level "High-Dimensional Factor".

Once unavailable, under continuous mutation, they will tend towards the collapse and extinction of life, and the "High-Dimensional Factor" will also dissipate and disintegrate, returning to the initial state.

Therefore, as long as a "High-Dimensional Factor" has an impact within a biological unit, the only way for it to continue to survive is to continuously meet the ever-increasing "fuel requirements" of the "High-Dimensional Factor".

In another document, Mr. Liang also categorized all "Blood-feeding Creature" into "blood-source," "common Blood-feeding Creature," "predator," "advanced predator," and "Ultimate Predator."

However, Mr. Liang's "rating" seems to be very strict. Most of the "Blood-feeding Creature" he discovered were classified as "ordinary Blood-feeding Creature," while the old-fashioned Bloodline in Europe were only classified as "blood sources," and very few were classified as "predators."

The one Xiang Kun could recognize from the description was a "giant raptor"—that is, the "mutant bird" that ate mutated ants, could become invisible, and was exceptionally fast, incredibly resilient, and had super strong regenerative abilities.

The other one lacked a specific description, only noting keywords like "Qinling Uninhabited Zone" and "Rabbit Woodcarving." Xiang Kun could guess from the hairs that it referred to him.

However, Xiang Kun was actually somewhat dissatisfied with this; he should at least have been given a "senior" title!

As for the "Ultimate Predator," Mr. Liang believes it is a "Blood-feeding Creature" that was born in a very early stage. Over a very long period of time, after fierce competition and battles and countless phases of transformation, it transformed into a life form that is extremely difficult for ordinary people to understand.

It is distributed in small, fragmented forms throughout the world, among various organisms, and coexists with all carbon-containing compounds. Mr. Liang was unsure which compound it was, nor what kind of life form the "Ultimate Predator" was; he only knew that it influenced the transformation of matter by affecting a few chemical bonds in the carbon elements of the compound.

Mr. Liang has many other conjectures about the "Ultimate Predator," even suggesting that the early mass extinctions, significant changes in the Earth's environment, and the birth of humankind are all related to the "Ultimate Predator." However, these conjectures lack any evidence and are merely pure speculation.

Although the document explaining the "High-Dimensional Factor variation theory" does not specify a date, Xiang Kun can roughly infer from some of the descriptions that it was recently written. Some of the judgments contradict earlier documents, indicating a significant change. Moreover, the extremely casual writing style also shows that there was no participation from researchers with formal academic backgrounds like Academician Shen. It is more like a collection of his essays, written down as thoughts came to him.

Mr. Liang's theory, like many of Xiang Kun's previous hypotheses, is largely based on "bold assumptions and careful verification," and can only serve as an explanation for his own abilities.

However, the theories and conjectures he proposed were all based on his specific observations and personal perceptions, and could be considered "experience-based," which could also be of some reference value to Xiang Kun.

Of course, after watching it, Xiang Kun, combining his own experience and understanding, especially after perceiving the entire process of Joel's phased limit collapse in his Hyper-Sensory State today, also had many different opinions.

Just like the "ritualistic explanation" of drinking blood, Xiang Kun believes it is not entirely correct. According to his experience of drinking blood, blood, or rather the tissue fluid of mutated plants, must carry something. Just like when he fought the "Giant Owl" and only tasted a little blood, he could already see some memory images. Of course, he now knows that being able to obtain the memory images of "Mutated Creature" through drinking blood is his unique ability.

However, he also knew that the "ritualistic interpretation" was not necessarily entirely wrong. In the previous few times when he devoured and drank the blood of "Mutated Creature", he also felt that he no longer needed to drink when he reached a certain point.

In particular, having clearly perceived the disintegration and demise of the "Mutated Creature" twice, he knew that the transfer and movement of "High-Dimensional Factor" were indeed not simply a matter of material carrying.

Of course, the biggest difference between Xiang Kun's understanding of "High-Dimensional Factor" and Mr. Liang's lies in their understanding of the relationship between consciousness and "High-Dimensional Factor".

Judging from the documents, Mr. Liang knew almost nothing about this.

According to Xiang Kun, based on Mr. Liang's theory, "High-Dimensional Factor" are like a group of workers who suddenly appear out of thin air. They arrive at a construction site, look at the buildings, ponder the possible plans of the building's owner, and then begin direct construction and renovation.

The blood of ordinary organisms is like the building materials; the "High-Dimensional Factor" are the construction workers, who simply build the structure based on these materials.

As buildings get taller and bigger, more workers are needed, and those with similar skill levels to existing workers, not much lower, are required to be accepted and put to work.

Once enough workers were available, construction continued.

If there aren't enough workers, the building will be built crookedly and then collapse.

The workers scattered like birds and beasts.

However, in Xiang Kun's understanding, these "High-Dimensional Factor" may not have simply appeared out of nowhere; they are more likely to have been forcibly pulled over by the consciousness of various beings for some reason.

Moreover, "High-Dimensional Factor" can not only be workers; they can also include engineers, painters, boxers, soldiers, and so on.

In the realm of consciousness, "High-Dimensional Factor" have broader and more powerful applications.

The workers keep building houses, even to the point of collapse, because their job is only building houses, and their only place is the construction site. They are not given more options or a wider world to explore—even though everyone else is a superman.

After Xiang Kun was able to enter the "Hyper-Sensory State," perceive hypersensory information, and integrate "Emotion-Infused Object" and "Super-Linked Object" into the "Super-Sensing Item System," he had a more fundamental and profound understanding of the fundamental factors affecting mutations, which is what Mr. Liang called "High-Dimensional Factor."

For "High-Dimensional Factor" to exert their power, they cannot be confined to a single individual organism, or even simply to a single space. As individuals affected by "High-Dimensional Factor," humans can only intervene through consciousness.

Consciousness is the only way to shorten the distance to the "High-Dimensional Factor".

Reaching the spot where Joel had disappeared and crumbled, Xiang Kun squatted down and stuffed Joel's clothes, shoes, and personal belongings into the bag he was carrying. Then, he touched a small blade of grass that looked slightly crushed and seemed to be deep in thought.

When Xiang Kun fought the mutated spiders in the Qinling Uninhabited Zone, he already knew about the existence of "mutated plants." Later, when pondering the influence of consciousness and mutation, he was still somewhat confused, because aren't plants incapable of developing consciousness?

But later, his analysis of extrasensory information made him realize that plants are not without consciousness; it's just that their consciousness is different from human cognition.

Aristotle said that plants only have the movement of taking in nutrients and metabolizing, so they only have a "nutritional soul" and no "sensory soul".

But in fact, they simply lack human perception, yet they possess a perception unique to them.

And those "perceptions" are areas that "High-Dimensional Factor" can also cover.

Therefore, they can also be affected by "High-Dimensional Factor", can also become "Mutated Creature", and can also participate in the engulfment and evolution of "High-Dimensional Factor".

As Xiang Kun was pondering, Alice appeared beside him, squatting down side by side. She looked at the ground, then at him.

"Boss, you won't turn into that! Alice will catch all the 'Mutated Creature' for you to eat!" Alice said confidently, reaching out to grab Xiang Kun's bald head.

Xiang Kun was both amused and exasperated, and slapped her little hand away. "Who told you I was afraid of turning into this?"

Alice nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, boss, don't worry. Even if you turn into Barbie Warrior, Alice won't mind!"

Xiang Kun was speechless. He flicked her forehead with his finger, causing her entire being to collapse.

Then he got up, walked to the tree next to him, stretched out his hands and touched the trunk, closed his eyes and entered a "Hyper-Sensory State".

A few seconds later, the leaves at the top of the tree began to wither and fall off, and then a strange black fruit appeared at the end, growing little by little.

Xiang Kun opened his eyes, looked up at his "masterpiece," and was somewhat surprised.

This influence is exerted through the surrounding Super-Linked Object, and is essentially similar to how he established connections with Zero Zero One and Zero Zero Two and modified his body.

But this time, his approach to the transformation was a little different.

While sensing Joel's body disintegrating, he was also tracking those "key cognitive information".

However, just like Mr. Liang's description of "High-Dimensional Factor", it is not affected by the distance in three-dimensional space. Changing the distance is like changing the state. Therefore, those "key cognitive information" did not spread outward from Joel as the center, but disappeared instantly.

But a small portion of them still exist nearby, such as in that tree.

His modifications were based on and expanded upon those "key cognitive information".

Xiang Kun wasn't sure what state the tree was in, because for the time being, he didn't smell any "Mutated Creature" emanating from it, and he couldn't determine whether it was a "Mutated Creature" through his extrasensory information, but it was definitely fundamentally different from Zero Zero One, Zero Zero Two, and Gold Glitter.

Alice reappeared beside him, pointed a finger Xiang Kun the tree trunk, and instructed, "Keep an eye on it."

"Okay, boss!" Alice tilted her head back, still full of energy. She reached out and gently poked the tree trunk with the scalpel, asking, "Boss, can I name it?"

"Go ahead and take it," Xiang Kun casually agreed.

He was also curious about Alice's naming style.

One second later, the answer was revealed, "Little Radish! From now on, you'll be Little Radish Tree!"

Well, it seems the Little Chubby Girl really has the biggest influence.